


A Mortifying Ordeal

by r0nj4



Category: Druck | SKAM (Germany)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Roommates/Housemates, Enemies to Lovers, M/M, Miscommunication, actually matteo is just an idiot
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-01
Updated: 2019-08-01
Packaged: 2020-07-28 23:04:22
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,681
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20072089
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/r0nj4/pseuds/r0nj4
Summary: David had been living in Mia’s old room for two months and four days. Matteo had not meant to keep count. But. Stuff happens.





	A Mortifying Ordeal

**Author's Note:**

> Note the rating! There's no actual sex in this, but there are thoughts about sex and talk about sex. Now you know.

David had been living in Mia’s old room for two months and four days. Matteo had not meant to keep count. But. Stuff happens. He had moved in, and instantly become a new favourite with both Hans and Linn. Matteo had felt a bit left out. 

He had gotten used to hearing things like, “David was really nice and cleaned the bathroom yesterday, Matteo” and “Look at these cushions that David bought for the sofa, Matteo. Aren’t they cool?”. He was just, all in all, the perfect roommate. He vacuumed the apartment several times a week and watered all of the plants, and even took care of the dishes sometimes, despite Matteo being the one having used said dishes. Matteo had thanked him for that, but explained that it had been unnecessary because Matteo had definitely _ planned _to do the dishes later.

“Oh, okay,” David had said and looked at him a bit weird.

It had sounded a bit harsher than Matteo had intended, he was aware of that. David had been getting on his nerves though, and he’d been struggling with pinpointing why. He was actually really nice. There was just something, _ something _about him, that set Matteo’s teeth on edge. 

For example, there was the music thing. David loved listening to music, he did it loudly and often. There was always music coming from his room. Some days classical, some days Hozier, other days mellow electronic. Matteo, who shared a wall with David, had been going a little bit insane. It wasn’t that David was playing music at weird hours or anything, it was just that he was at home a lot. He worked from home, was the thing, with some kind of freelance work. It was all a bit iffy, to be honest, and Matteo wasn’t sure of the details. Like, maybe it was graphic design but it could just as easily have been composing music, for all Matteo knew. The problem was that Matteo spent a lot of time home, too. He was still at university, finally in his last year, and had always liked revising for exams and working on essays from home. It had gotten more difficult now, because of the music. He’d pounded on the shared wall numerous times, and David would usually lower the volume or put in headphones after a while, which Matteo was happy about. Still, it was a bother. 

“You could just tell me when it’s too loud, Matteo,” David has said to him, one afternoon. Matteo had been a bit caught off guard and not had the time to reply before David had gone back to his room. 

There was also the people thing. Matteo liked people fine, he just didn’t like them in his space all the time. David knew a lot of people. He brought a lot of strangers over who took up space in the kitchen and living room, playing video games and cooking, and making noise in general. David had offered Matteo dinner, more than once, when he had friends over, but Matteo didn’t really feel like he needed anymore friends so he had declined. Besides, they were loud, and all wore the same kind of cool clothes that David wore, and there were so _many _of them_. _Matteo wouldn’t know what to talk to them about. 

Some of them even spent the night sometimes, in David’s room, and that was a whole can of worms Matteo didn’t care to open. He’d tiptoed around the subject with Hans, once.

“David, huh?” he’d said. “He has a lot of guests, right?”

“He’s friendly,” Hans had said. “I’m not surprised he has a lot of friends.”

“Yeah, but like. Overnight, kind of guests? Sometimes more than one at a time?”

Hans had looked at him like he’d just bitten into a particularly sour lemon. 

“You’re being weird, Matteo.”

Matteo had gone back into his room.

Then there was the shower thing. David took really long showers. Matteo liked a good, long shower too, sometimes, but he didn’t waste entire _ mornings _in the bathroom like David did. David had destroyed Matteo’s whole morning routine by moving in. Matteo had let him know that. 

“Finally!” he’d said one morning when David came out from the bathroom. “Did you spend fifty minutes on doing your hair or something?” 

David’s eyebrows had been pinched and he’d gone into his room without saying a word.

David had been living in Mia’s old room for two months and four days when it all came to a head. Matteo was making breakfast. David was still in the shower. He was even playing music in the shower. Matteo was going nuts. He buttered his toast angrily, probably with too much force. The butter knife put a hole in the bread. 

“Fuck!”

“What’s wrong?” That was David, who had just walked into the kitchen. 

“You!” Matteo shouted. “You are what's wrong! You’re even playing music in the bathroom now? Can this apartment ever be quiet?”

“Uh,” David said, a drop of water sliding from his freshly washed hair down his cheek. “What?”

Matteo buttered his toast some more. It was ruined. “Now you’ve ruined my fucking toast.”

“What the hell?” David said. “Are you being serious right now?”

“Deadly.”

“I ruined your toast?” David asked, pointing at aforementioned toast in Matteo’s hand. “You literally buttered your toast too hard.”

“Because of you!”

“Because of me? Please tell me what I’ve done wrong now, Matteo, because I’m just dying to know.”

Matteo smirked. “You play music all the time? And there’s suddenly always people in the apartment? And the showers? Don’t get me started on the showers.”

“You never told me that you don’t like having people over?” 

“Of course I did!” Matteo shouted. “I mean it’s fine to have people over, not just all the time. And, I don’t really care how many people you wanna fuck at once, but maybe give me a heads up, first?”

David _ balked_.

“What the fuck are you even talking about? You didn’t tell me that you don’t like having people over! And you didn’t actually tell me that the music thing bothers you? You just pounded on the wall like a _child,_” David shouted back at him. “And now you’re talking about my sex life? You never tell me anything, Matteo. You barely even speak to me except when you have something rude to say.”

“You’re always having sleepovers!”

“Because most of my friends live in Hamburg!” David said. “And you definitely didn’t tell me about the shower thing? What even is the shower thing?”

Matteo had gotten even more angry at hearing that, because David was plain _ lying _now. 

“You’re in the shower for ages!”

“Because you’re not there!” David shouted.

David was all red in the face. Matteo felt a bit out of breath because he hadn’t shouted at anyone in years.

“What?”

Matteo had a lot of adrenaline in his system. He kind of wanted to get in a fist fight, which was a new feeling. Not with David, though, just _ someone_. He could never hit David.

“I take long showers because it’s the only time of day that I get to spend alone. Without you judging me and being rude to me for whatever asinine reason you’ve come up with that day,” he said, and looked at Matteo with something very similar to disgust in his eyes. 

Matteo felt like this hadn’t gone to plan. He didn’t _ mind _David. He’d just gotten a bit annoyed. People do, sometimes. Right? 

“You know what, Matteo,” David said, holding up his hand like he was about the lay down the law. “I liked you. When we first met. I tried being your friend. I even did dishes for you, and invited you to meet my friends, and I did all these things, and you just… It’s like you had decided against me from the start?”

That wasn’t true, Matteo thought. At least not entirely. Or was it? Matteo didn't really know, anymore. He wasn’t sure how to explain that to David, though. Perfect David, with his cool friends, and his mysterious job, and his annoyingly perfect hair. David, who had been nothing but friendly to Matteo. 

Matteo shrugged. “Sorry.”

The adrenaline had kind of started fading away now, and Matteo mostly felt a bit… dumb.

David huffed.

“I hadn’t realised you felt that way,” Matteo said. “Sorry.”

He could kind of see that maybe he had said a few mean things to David. Without even meaning to.

“I don’t think I’m ready to forgive you,” David said with a shake of his head. “Like, what’s the deal?”

The toast had gone cold in Matteo’s hand.

“I really need to know, because I’ve been going crazy over this lately. Hans and Linn told me that you’re normally a good guy, and now you’ve got me questioning _ their _sanity, too, which isn’t fair to them.”

Matteo put down the toast. He didn’t know what to say.

“Did I do something to offend you? Or is it just that I’m not straight? Not cis? Is that the reason why? Or is it just… me?”

That was a punch to his gut. Matteo had not realised how well and truly he had fucked up this whole situation. He kind of wanted to throw up.

“No, shit. Of course not,” he said. 

“I believed you to be better than that, but the way you’ve been acting just proves that you’re super uncomfortable around me. Honestly, I should probably just move out.”

David sounded completely raw, looked completely crushed. 

“No! Fuck. Of course you shouldn’t move out. I didn’t… I didn’t realise I was being that much of an asshole. I’m really sorry.”

“Whatever,” David said, and shrugged, like he didn’t believe him.

“I don’t think it’s because of those reasons you said?” Matteo said. “I mean, I’m not straight, so. That would be weird. And I didn’t know that you’re not cis, so I guess that just… can’t be it.”

David squinted at him. 

Matteo put a hand in his hair, let it drag down his face.

“You didn’t even bother to get to know me, Matteo.”

He nodded a few times, because David was right. Matteo hadn’t bothered. He had taken one look at David, and that had been it. Because he had been terrified. 

“I didn’t… know how?” he said.

“You didn’t know how?”

He shrugged, and leaned back against the counter. “You’re just, I don’t know,” he said and raised a hand at David. “Perfect?”

“What?”

He desperately wanted to explain, but he felt the words tangle up in his brain before even reaching his vocal cords.

“Just… You’re my age but you already have some really cool job. And you have a ton of friends, and you’re nice, and good looking, and… And everyone just, instantly likes you?”

David shook his head. He had a way of shaking his head in this sort of wobbly way. Matteo could hardly look at him when he did that because it was so cute. And that was the thing, wasn’t it? Matteo had known that for two months and four days, but he had been terrified of acknowledging it. Because that could be dangerous. He was _ such _an idiot.

“I like you, a lot, actually,” he said. “Too much. And I just… become shit at talking. Shit at acting like a normal human being."

David sat down in one of the chairs by the kitchen table. He looked exhausted.

"What does that even mean, Matteo?"

Matteo was close to pulling his own hair out. 

"I'm just! Not good! At communication, or any of those things. I should have just talked to you about what was bothering me instead of being rude about it. I get it. But, I just get…"

He shook his head, scared of finishing the sentence.

"You get, what?"

"Nervous! Okay? I get nervous around you, and it's like my brain short-circuits and I don't know what to say."

David huffed. "I've lived here for two months. How can I still make you nervous when I've been here for that long? I'm not some random person."

"Two months and four days."

"What?"

"You've lived here for two months and four days."

David looked at him, then. Really looked at him, in a way that made Matteo feel _seen_. It was a mortifying ordeal.

"Oh," David said.

He had figured it out.

Matteo crossed his arms and looked away. The hallway was getting cluttered. Someone should really tidy it.

"Oh," David said again. "Do you… _ like _me?"

Matteo shrugged. "I do."

David made a sound like a mix between a breath and a giggle.

"_Like _me, like me?" He asked.

Matteo nodded. "Sorry about that," he said.

"No, no. That's nice of you."

Matteo huffed. 

“A bit of an unconventional way to let me know, maybe…” David said.

Matteo was still shaking a bit from the adrenaline. He didn’t know what to say, now.

“I, uh…” David started. Matteo still didn’t dare looking at him. “I’m going to have to think about that.”

He got up from his chair and went into his room. 

The week after that had been the weirdest week of Matteo’s life, probably. He had kind of wanted to avoid David, because he _ knew _now. He knew of Matteo’s stupid crush, and he hadn’t said anything about it. It’s difficult to avoid one’s roommates, though. The two of them kept having awkward interactions, bumping into each other outside of the bathroom and in the kitchen. But, Matteo had changed. Because now that David already knew, it was somehow also a bit easier to be himself around him. For instance, Matteo had actually said “Sorry” for bumping into David outside of the bathroom one morning, and he hadn’t said a snarky comment all week. It was some kind of progress, in Matteo’s mind.

Then David had gone to Hamburg to visit friends and family over the weekend and Matteo had been going a little bit insane. All the stuff that had annoyed him about David in the past were suddenly forgotten, because nothing was worse than David not actually being around. He had gotten used to hearing the music, the footsteps, the little laughs and yawns, through the wall. Had gotten used to always seeing those few drops of water dribble down his neck every morning at breakfast. With David gone, it had all become even more clear, somehow. Matteo wanted him back. Badly. And he desperately hoped he hadn’t made it weird enough that David was actually considering moving out.

The Sunday when David got home, Matteo was in the kitchen. He was playing music from his laptop, a song he’d first been introduced to through David’s wall, swaying a bit to the beat while chopping onions for the _ soffritto_.

“Hey,” David said, clearing his throat and nodding to Matteo from the hall. 

Matteo jumped a bit, startled. “Oh, hi.” 

“Didn’t mean to scare you,” David said. “Sorry.”

“No, no. That’s fine.”

Matteo realised he was still holding the knife, which was now pointed basically directly at David. He put it down, feeling like a fool.

“Welcome home,” he said.

“Thanks.” David smiled at him. 

Matteo had not seen him in two days and that smile was something magical.

“Did you have a good time? In Hamburg?” 

David walked in, and sat down by the table. It gave Matteo a bit of déjà vu from the last time he’d seen him in the same chair. 

He nodded a few times. “Sure. It was fine. What are you making?”

“Lasagne,” he said, returning to chopping the onions. 

“Nice.”

“It’s good for putting in the freezer and reheating, so, yeah…” Matteo said. 

“Right,” David said. “I wouldn’t know. I’m not that much of a planner.”

He already knew that because he had seen David running late more than once, rushing around the apartment looking for his phone or missing a sock or whatever.

“Do you want some?” Matteo said. “It won’t be ready for an hour or so, but I’m making a lot.”

“Yeah,” he said, and smiled at Matteo again. “That would be nice, thanks.”

As he moved on to peeling the carrots, Matteo realised that he had never really seen David smile at him like that before. He felt almost like he was standing at a cliff, looking down, down, down. 

“Let me know when it’s ready?” David said. “I’ve spent too much time with my family, I think. Gotta have a lie down.”

Matteo laughed a little. “Sure.”

Later, they ate lasagne in front of the TV. Matteo had never offered David dinner before, and he was a bit nervous about him trying his cooking for the first time. That proved completely unfounded, of course, because David was just _ nice. _

“Damn, this was good,” he said, making sounds of pleasure that Matteo felt were more appropriate for a different setting. 

“It’s not that complicated if you’ve made it a few times,” Matteo said. “Thanks, though.”

He chewed on his lasagne. He wasn’t very hungry, because David was sitting quite close, and that made his heart beat really fast and his hands a little shaky.

David groaned between bites. “Fuck. You’re really talented, Matteo.”

Matteo nearly got hard. He was really fucking easy, apparently. Or maybe just really gone. Gone for David.

“No, no. It’s like a… Florenzi family requirement. I’d basically be disowned if I couldn’t make lasagne.”

“Whatever,” David said. “Still good.”

Matteo tried concentrating on the TV, but David took a big swig from his glass of water and his lovely neck was on display. Matteo got this urge to just, put his mouth there. 

“Nearly as good as the orgy in Hamburg,” David said, then.

Matteo nearly spit lasagne in his face. “What?!”

David laughed at him. “Your face just now! Priceless.”

He hoped his face hadn’t looked really stupid. It probably had.

“I just can’t get over the fact that you thought I was sleeping with all of my friends,” David said, which made him feel embarrassed again. 

David was still smiling at him, though, which always made him feel a little bit better.

“Sorry about that.”

“It’s hilarious! Who would even think that?”

He felt his face get a bit warmer. He shrugged. “An idiot, probably,” he said.

“How would that even work? You’ve seen my room, it’s so tiny. You would have to get pretty creative, right? If you were like… four people getting it on? In there?” 

David was making himself giggle.

Matteo was blushing. And now he was thinking about sex and David which was a terrible combination, especially considering that he’d barely just managed to suppress one boner in the last few minutes. 

“Pretty creative,” Matteo said, smiling a little. 

“It’s the funniest thing I’ve heard in years.”

Matteo laughed a bit more. It was the most fake laugh of maybe his entire life. He kind of wanted to dissolve and disappear.

“I’m just messing with you, Matteo,” he said. “Don’t look so scared.”

He took a sip och water, felt his mind returning a bit.

“It was an honest mistake,” he said. “You were really having a lot of people in your room.”

“Jealous, much?” David had an eyebrow raised. He was dangerously hot.

Matteo snorted, and shook his head. 

“Is that like, your kink? Group play? Orgies and partner switching and stuff?” David asked, looking honestly intrigued. 

“God no! Please shut up, now.”

Matteo was exhausted. He put down his plate and slouched down deeper in the couch.

He felt David looking at him, snickering.

“I had to get back at you somehow, right?” David said. 

Matteo groaned, and put his face in his hands. 

“Fair point. Sorry, by the way," he said. "I'm really sorry."

David waved his hand at him like it was nothing.

He felt like he’d gotten an even better understanding of why David had so many people around him all the time. He wasn’t just nice. He was nice, but he was also funny, and charming, and a little bit mean sometimes when he needed to be. 

They watched TV for a little while, empty plates in front of them. David told him some stories from Hamburg, no orgies as far as he could tell, and he told David some stories from the flat share. With Hans and Linn as roommates, it was amazing how much could happen in a weekend. 

It got a bit darker outside as they kept talking. David conjured up a lighter from somewhere and lit the small candles on the table. Matteo couldn’t remember them ever having candles, before David had moved in. 

“Did you buy those?” he asked.

“Mhm.”

“Nice.”

David looked different, in candle light. Softer around the edges. He was beautiful, but Matteo already knew that.

“I am nice,” David said.

“I know,” Matteo said. “You’re very nice.” 

Something in the air changed, then. Like it got a little heavier, somehow. The look on David’s face changed a bit, too, in Matteo’s mind. He had been smiling a second ago. Now he was biting his bottom lip and playing with a frayed hem on his shirt sleeve. 

Suddenly, he was leaning forward, and before Matteo had time to react there was an other pair of lips against his. David was kissing him. Just a quick press of lips. Matteo barely had time to kiss back.

“Thank you for the lasagne,” David said.

Matteo wanted to say that he was welcome but he couldn’t form the words.

“You’re very nice, too,” David said.

Matteo sat very still, afraid he might ruin it. 

“At least I think so.”

David kissed him again, long enough for him to kiss back. 

“At least you think so?” Matteo asked, afterwards.

His lips were still warm from the kiss, his whole body tingling from just having felt David's tongue against his. He felt a tiny bit like he was floating.

David nodded. “At least I think so,” he whispered, and leaned in to kiss him some more. 

**Author's Note:**

> I've been working on something longer for a while now and really needed a break from having to think about stuff like continuity and like... trying to write WELL. I just wanted to write something a bit silly! And maybe fun! I hope you liked it. 
> 
> And, since not everyone spends as much time on tumblr as I do I feel like I should probably let you know that ["A mortifying ordeal"](https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/the-mortifying-ordeal-of-being-known) isn't something I just came up with. It would have been cool if I had, though.
> 
> I'm [a-station-on-your-way](https://a-station-on-your-way.tumblr.com/) on tumblr.


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